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Antenna Height

I have a ranch home (single level). However I live in Sacramento Valley.
It's hard to pick up anything 30 miles away because of the hills, etc.
I just installed a DB8 Antenna, along with an amp.
I would like to install it on the roof. I know the higher is better, But I'd like to get away from installing a tripod on my nice new roof. I will be attaching the mast to a chimney with straps.
My question is: Will a 10' mast be enough? I will probably use a 10' x 1" piece of EMT.

This web site shows the antenna and all the specs with it.It shows an antenna mast extension as being 1.5" diameter.It also shows that it picks up channels 14 thru 69. Do you have locals like I do here south of Houston, TX like 2, 8, 11, 13 ? You might want to chack on this.

I used to use the top rail of a cyclone fence as a pole. I do not know what size it is at the moment but it is a lot heavier than EMT and it is also galvanized to keep it from rusting.Edit: The fence top rail I found at Home Depot is 1-3/8" dia , 12 gage ( about 1/8" wall ) and 10-1/2 feet long.

1" EMT has an even thinner wall than 1-1/4" EMT. 1" EMT is only 3/64" wall and 1.163" OD. It isn't nearly as resistant to twisting as 1-1/4" at 1.510". You don't want the antenna doing a "parade wave" in a good breeze.

Technically you don't need to be able to see the lights on the towers, but even leaves will negatively impact UHF. The clearer the shot you have, the less you're going to have to worry.

As jimmy57 points out, you need to consider whether the antenna is going to perform well (or whether it even matters) for your PBS station being at VHF 9.

Edited by harsh, 12 September 2012 - 06:15 PM.

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. -- JFK

Thanks for all you responses.
My next door neighbor took down his 20' telescopic mast a few years back,
and wasn't using it. He gave it to me for free. I just rescanned my channels and get 40 now, and that's not with the mast!

The mast is a 20' telescope from Rohn. I am considering installing a Channel Master CM 3092 3 ft Tripod Mount. Since I don't have a long boom antenna but a DB8 instead. It should be fine, right? With guy wires of course..

Telescoping masts often don't work all that well with guy-wires unless you freeze the sections. Depending on where you attach the wires, it may just work the mast down and allow it to tilt. It is probably best to have some sort of solid base and skip the wires.

I'm not convinced that it is reasonable to assume that a bowtie array is necessarily going to create less of a wind load than a Yagi-Uda. Wind is all about cross section, not weight or depth.

Understand that many of the theories I've presented are not the result of exhaustive testing but based in rudimentary aerodynamic theory.

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. -- JFK

The mast is a 20' telescope from Rohn. I am considering installing a Channel Master CM 3092 3 ft Tripod Mount. Since I don't have a long boom antenna but a DB8 instead. It should be fine, right? With guy wires of course..

Mark

I hate to see you bolt this down to your roof.I mentioned before that I used the top rail tubing for chain link fencing for mine.They can be connected together using a coupling made for that purpose. Some have one end reduced so that it slides into the next piece of tubing.

What I did was got to the highest point of my roof ( my roof is an A style roof ) and pushed about 18" of the 2 lengths of the tubing into the ground with the pole straight up and next to the house. Then I used a bracket made for holding antennas to the side of the house and bolted it to the fascia board of the house. I did not have any wires attached to mine and it was a total of about 18 feet in the air when it was all installed.

If you go with the tripod, make sure you put that roofing tar stuff under the feet and then all around them and even on top of the bolts / screws that you use to fasten it down to the roof so that it does not leak into your ceiling.

So have the mast up and facing W/SW.
Getting alot of channels. But I know I can get more.
There is a tree in the way of direct line of sight.
Thankfully its in my yard and needs trimming down.
The antenna is at around 20' with an additional house height of 15'. So really at 35'.
I was considering adding an additional 10' section to 'see' over the tree, but that would be a pain to install.
So I am going to leave it as a 20' telescopic with the tree trimmed.
Will keep you posted...

OK..
The tree is too much of an issue right now.
Major branches on my side close to a power line, and also on the neighbors side.
I have lost channels, and I attribute that to the tree.
So, my question of the day is this:

Are Antenna mast sections unique?
That is, I have 2 10' ROHN sections.
But I would like to add another 10' section.
Will a Channel Master section fit into a ROHN?
Or a 10' ROHN section fit into a channel master 20' telescopic?